Still working on that entry about stuff that happened about 4 or 5 weeks ago now. Everything--my online silence, in particular--will make more sense when I post it, but I'm too emotionally drained to finish it. I'm only about halfway done and it's forever long. Maybe I'll just post what I have and get around to doing the rest later.

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The window in front of me is made of that horrible warped "privacy glass" that I hate, but it forces the purple sky and black trees outside into a fabulous raspberry swirl, so I can't complain tonight.

Things to fix things caused by other things that are the result of things that my body is insistent on doing no matter how much I beat it into submission. I keep wanting to embrace my latest philosophical ideal--working with the body, instead of against it--but I'm having trouble. Maybe it's meant to be an ideal and not a practice.

I always challenge myself with new ways of thinking and acting and being that I think would improve me as a person and benefit myself and those around me, but what's the point? I like the idea of myself as a continual process, but final products are awfully satisfying, aren't they? When you can say, "I made it! I'm here!"--it's a great feeling.

I guess I get down on myself sometimes because as soon as I've reached one peak, I realize that I've really just been messing around in the foothills the whole time. I'm a vast improvement on what I was 10 years ago, and I'm really interested to see how I'll evolve in the next 10 years, but at no point do I really feel that I can justifiably say, "I did this. I accomplished this. I made it." Recently I've been into human relations, racial awareness, sympathy vs. empathy, working for the whole and not only the self, etc., but although I've made progress, I'm nowhere near finished. Nor will I ever be.

Death is such a cheat because you work and work and you're so much better than you were when you were first assembled (for some people) and then you die. A wasted product. If your lucky, you affect people in your life for the better, but there are so many people we unintentionally--or otherwise--affect for the worse, and they pass on your evil and the cycle perpetuates. It is so much harder to pass on good things. Our lives are good and so we take good things for granted; when dealt evil, we complain and beg for sympathy.

I have an amazingly slick life. I'm sure some people would laugh to read that, but they don't know what I mean. (Lord, can you tell I'm drinking on a Tuesday night?) The pieces of my life have always fit together a little too well. Every door hides happily until the perfect moment and then it opens, lovely and broad and unmistakable. I half-ass my way through things and yet the tracks line up perfectly like I had worked my ass off to make them fit. I went through all 13 years of USN just fine. I applied to 4 colleges--with a horrible half-assed application essay--and got into the one I wanted to go to. I applied for the Stanford University study abroad program in Japan--half-assed application--and got in. I had a job lined up for me after I finished college. I applied to one grad school--my application arrived late--and they decided to give me a huge monthly stipend to attend, plus they waived all tuition and fees. I applied--late, of course--for an apartment in Columbus, and got a nice one for decent rent.

I wrote an entry about this several months ago, but it seemed too self-centered, so I didn't post it. But it worries me. My life just keeps fitting together like some huge, horrible puzzle and I keep wondering what the final picture will be of. God's got something in mind, and I'm afraid to find out what it is. Everything's too perfect. Everything's settled, I have mega money in the bank, I live more than comfortably, I have a great boyfriend, when is the axe going to fall?

To my credit, I do work hard once I get past a transition point--it's working through the transitions that I recoil from. And yet the transitions take care of themselves and that scares me. What am I being set up for? What's the price of all of this?

This entry wasn't meant to be whiny, it was just a thought I've been having about the fact that I'm constantly surrounded by roses and I can't find any thorns. It's just scary because I believe that there is balance in life, and I'm afraid of finding out what's going to balance this out....

Many would argue that people are genetically wired to strive, struggle, suffer, etc. We want something to do, a problem, something to ‘will’, a concrete purpose.

Without problems, without any sort of resistance, some tend to get paranoid. When life has few negative distractions, rather than face insignificance or the pointlessness of reality, the mind creates what the world apparently has failed to provide.

[insert LJ-cut]

A friend of mine has a fat trust fund that basically means he will never ‘have to’ work to support himself. One would think this is a gift, but he and his broken family are some of the most screwed up and unhappy people I know in real life.

He has an especially hard time finding meaning and motivation. Nothing ever pushes him. Things are ‘too easy’. What is the point of anything? There is no push.

He does still talk about ‘the drive’. This guy spends more time playing MMORPGs than anyone rightfully should [Which is why he is my sugar daddy whenever I play these games with him ;P].

He is really smart, he wants to be successful and do well, but whether that is in real life or in a fantasy computer world it doesn’t matter to him, and since there is no real life pain associated with risks taken in cyberspace, that is his playground.

(Interesting revelation while doing this) I have read that people like religion because they want to know why and what they are suffering for, thus providing a purpose/meaning of life.

This particular friend has become very atheist, but is from a long line of Catholics, which brings in the whole genetic ‘Catholic guilt’ problem. He lacks a reason to ‘suffer’ so he doesn’t do anything. Without a firm belief in god, some feel that life becomes rather pointless. With that, they have a hard time accepting this idea and moving on with their lives.

(wow I’m getting off topic) The answer to this problem is that ‘there is no answer’, and if that drives you nuts, that is the problem you should face.

[end LJ-cut]

Humm… what is my actual point… learn to appreciate life and savor what you have. I think mastery over your body and being healthy is a good place to start.

[Insert Dennis Miller’s “…but that is just my opinion, I could be wrong.”]